Only in Jersey and 14 other states..Supporters call the option environmentally friendly and more affordable than traditional burials or cremation.
New Jersey has become the 14th state in the nation to allow human composting, a process that turns human remains into nutrient-rich soil as an alternative to burial or cremation.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law Sept. 11, authorizing a method formally known as natural organic reduction. The practice involves placing a body in a vessel with natural materials such as straw, wood chips or alfalfa, then mixing it with warm air. Over 45 to 60 days, the body decomposes and is transformed into a soil-like material that can be returned to loved ones, either to scatter like ashes, use in a garden or to plant a tree.

Supporters call the option environmentally friendly and more affordable than traditional burials or cremation. It uses less energy, avoids the release of mercury and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and reduces the demand for cemetery land and timber for caskets.

Human composting, more formally known as natural organic reduction, became popular after the COVID-19 pandemic left more than a million Americans dead. New Jersey residents previously had to send bodies out of state to access the service. Funeral homes are expected to begin offering it locally within the next 10 months.

link;https://www.accuweather.com/en/climate/new-jersey-legalizes-human-composting-as-eco-friend

Good grief. You can do this at home using your garden beds.

What do they do with the bones and skull? There's no way that's decomposing in a few weeks.

I'm guessing bacteria and scavengers are added to the mix to make it a relatively quick process.

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
Good grief. You can do this at home using your garden beds.

Not legally...

In past times it was normal, before the advent of funeral parlors in the growing US.

Is it legal to sell garden produce that has been grown in this media?

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
I'm guessing bacteria and scavengers are added to the mix to make it a relatively quick process.

quote:

Over 45 to 60 days, the body decomposes...

If you've never smelled a decomposing human corpse, you know that the odor involved is... unforgettable.

I wonder how they avoid the stench of dozens of bodies at once going through this process.

It's Jersey, what stench....

There is a space in MQTs Park Cemetery for "green burials". Doesnt seem to have many customers and it main feature is weeds.

For a reasonable cost I would totally go for this for myself. Why spend thousands on cremation, or put an embalmed body in the ground in a coffin that won't fully decompose for centuries?

As long as ground water won't be infected or neighboring properties subjected to terrible odors, it seems like the most logical disposition.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
It's Jersey, what stench....

Yep. It blends right in!

Personally, I'm all for it if it's cheaper. I think it's idiotic how much we spend on bodies after they're dead. Maybe legalizing this will move us closer to legalizing what I want done with mine:

Make some kind of biodegradable (and flammable) wooden or birch bark canoe, stick me on it, shove it out in the lake and then either light it up with a flaming arrow viking style, or pack it full of tannerite and shoot it from shore. Either way it's a hell of a send-off, it's relatively inexpensive, and the fish get to eat.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
It's Jersey, what stench....

Well, there's a reason they call it the 'Garbage State'!

Soylent Green?

Worms gotta eat, same as buzzards.

All I can add is most types of funerals are very expensive. After the current generation, virtually no one visits the grave in the cemetery.

I’m all for lower cost options, if that’s the main reasoning.

I’m a little concerned about disease. How are they managing folks who have died due to a contagious disease that’s resistant to the degradation process? What about implanted devices? They must have to be removed, right?

I’m guessing there’s a really good reason we’ve steered away from this in the past. I’ll have to do a bit of research, but this is sending chills up my spine. I’ve no issue with cremation and then spreading those ashes wherever, but this.. I don’t know.

Locally a cremation with a cardboard box container is about two thousand. You can pick your own urn or scatter the ashes if you wish. If you desire and have few friends professional mourners can be had at your service.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
It's Jersey, what stench....

Well, there's a reason they call it the 'Garbage State'!

Pig farms suddenly don't smell all bad!

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Locally a cremation with a cardboard box container is about two thousand. You can pick your own urn or scatter the ashes if you wish.

Here in Utah it runs a tad over $4k for the most basic cremation. That's in a cardboard box.

The itemized list looks more like $3k, but then you have to pay $800 for them to pick up the body from whichever hospital or city morgue it is in. I doubt the government would allow me to pick up my dead relative in my car to deliver it to a crematorium!

Then you have to pay for some kind of urn. The cheapest is a basic plastic box for about $50, but anything else starts getting into the hundreds.

You also have to pay the coroner a fee for reviewing the deceased's medical records before releasing the body to the mortuary, plus a government permit fee for the cremation.

Our impression of mortuaries is that the excessive somberness is old fashioned. Dark wood paneling, quiet music, everyone speaking in hushed voices and telling us so deeply sincerely how much they are sorry for our loss, as if they know us or the deceased personally.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Make some kind of biodegradable (and flammable) wooden or birch bark canoe, stick me on it, shove it out in the lake and then either light it up with a flaming arrow viking style, or pack it full of tannerite and shoot it from shore. Either way it's a hell of a send-off, it's relatively inexpensive, and the fish get to eat.

You should watch the film Eulogy.. Hilarious ending (and you get to enjoy Zooey Deschanel for two hours).